What he brings was crystallized in one play, one of the biggest plays of the Pacers' 115-108 victory over Chicago Thursday night.
Thad Young rebounded a missed 3-pointer, and quickly dribbled the length of the court, looking for an open teammate. Finding none in a better position than himself, he took the ball across midcourt, then behind his back, dribbled into the lane, turned and kicked out a pass to Rodney Stuckey, who hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc that opened an eight-point lead with 4:10 remaining.
While that sequence displayed rebounding, ball handling, passing and court awareness, he also showed off plenty of scoring. His 16 points (on 8-of-12 shooting) and eight rebounds were the highest among the starters. He added four assists, a steal and just one turnover in his 27 minutes, 15 seconds.
It was just one exhibition game, an early one, but he's played two now with impressive consistency and versatility and provided a glimpse of what could come.
"It's his ability to rebound and push that's so valuable," Paul George said. "He's an underrated playmaker. He's been finding guys as good as anybody on the break. It's a huge luxury to have him at the four spot."
Pacers coach Nate McMillan will bask in it – at both ends of the court. Young's quickness on the perimeter allows McMillan to keep Young in the game regardless of matchups. At 6-foot-8, 220 pounds, he's big enough to battle power forwards such as Anthony Davis, as he did in New Orleans on Tuesday. But he's also quick enough to step out and defend 3-point threats such as Chicago's Nikola Mirotić, who missed all five of his attempts on Thursday, and to stay in front of his man when the opponent goes with a smaller lineup.
Young and George together should make for a strong defensive tandem on the wings, allowing one another to switch on screens.
"We don't lose anything when we switch that combination of three and four," McMillan said.
"He just gives us a lot of versatility to be able to play a lot of different ways."
Versatility is the cornerstone of Young's career, both within the game and the profession. He's playing for his fourth team, his eighth coach and, by his estimation, his fourth or fifth general manager. He's had no choice but to adjust, and believes he's been a good fit for every offense but one – the Princeton system Eddie Jordan utilized without success in Philadelphia in the 2009-10 season.
McMillan's uptempo system should enable Young to do everything he's capable of doing, which is most things. The only real uncertainty is 3-point shooting. He's a career 32 percent shooting behind the arc, peaking, ironically, at 35 percent in his season under Jordan. Whatever he adds to the Pacers' offense from there, however, will be regarded as beyond luxury. He hit his only attempt in New Orleans, and didn't take one against the Bulls.
"It's great for my skill set," he said. "As you guys see, I'm going to run and try to out-hustle guys. Be an energy guy. We only ran one play for me today, but I was able to score a lot of different ways because of the ball movement and the way we played off each other."
That one play, by the way, resulted in a running hook shot in the lane – Young called it a "b.s. hook" – moments before his one-man fastbreak set up Stuckey's 3-pointer.
The only downside of the Pacers' offense for Young is that it will be so physically demanding for a 28-year-old body that's slogged through nine NBA seasons. Asked if it's the fastest he's ever played in, he smiled.
"Yessss," he said. "For sure."
There were a couple of years in Philadelphia when he played with the likes of Andre Iguodala, Lou Williams and Andre Miller, he said, but he was a fresh-faced kid then who had left college after one season, still a teenager.
"That was earlier in my career," he said, laughing. "Now I'm in the 10th season and we're trying to run and put up 115 points a game. It's kind of hard."
Young got a dose of McMillan's hard-nosed approach in the fourth quarter, when he was sent back in the game for a 3 ½-minute stretch after the Bulls pulled within one point midway through. It wasn't a typical substitution for the preseason, when reserves usually play out the final minutes, but McMillan has a lot of statements to make as he introduces himself to his players.
"I was like, Wow," Young said. "That was just to keep the game under control."
Young won't play a heavy load of minutes in the regular season, probably no more than 30 per game. The Pacers have depth, and McMillan will use it liberally. They proved that against Chicago, as three reserves stood out: Rodney Stuckey scored a game-high 20 along with seven assists, Glenn Robinson III added 17 and Al Jefferson had 15 and 11 rebounds.
Projected starting center Myles Turner hasn't played yet, but probably will in Saturday's rematch in Chicago, and he'll only make things easier for Young. McMillan also will go with smaller lineups that don't utilize a traditional power forward at times.
Young figures he can handle whatever's thrown at him. He's adjusted to everything else in his career, so what's one more? For a player who's advanced past the first round of the playoffs just once in nine seasons, this modification couldn't come at a better time.
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